Under the Upstream inspection and testing services contract, Indigenous employment rates last year reached 20 percent - due to positive collaboration between QGC, Applus+ and Indigenous recruitment company, Indigenous Workstars. A significantly higher rate than any other current QGC contract, this demonstrates opportunities for Indigenous participation can be realised through focused contract management.
Applus+ now have five Indigenous employees working on the Upstream inspection scope, assuring the integrity of our assets. This is a fantastic achievement for QGC and Applus+, with the contract awarded in early 2017 as the first of the integrated Prelude/QGC contracts.
This success is an example of effective collaboration across the business and our supply chain partners. The QGC social performance, contracts and procurement functions worked with Applus+ from contract commencement to define Indigenous participation goals and associated KPIs. The teams also introduced Applus+ to QGC’s partner, Indigenous Workstars.
Applus+ have proactively worked with Indigenous Workstars to connect Indigenous employees with work opportunities and continue to lead by example in actively pursuing further opportunities for Indigenous participation.
Results such as these under the Applus+ contract contribute significantly to delivering Shell Australia’s strategy to be “best in class”. With increasing expectation to demonstrate benefits of operations to local communities, it’s been proven that delivering local outcomes (including Indigenous participation) is our single most effective means of generating project support.